Strange Friends
by Aelorn
Summary: They were friends. Had always been friends. They just needed a reminder sometimes. Sasuke and Naruto FRIENDSHIP story. Sorry folks. No yaoi.


**Disclaimer:** I own three cats, a laptop, a pencil, and a notebook; I do not own _Naruto_.

**A/N:** This is my first ever fanfiction of any kind. I don't have a BETA and I'd really appreciate it if you could point any OOC I might have written, or any general mistakes.

Thanks!

Nami

(Also, Naruto and Sasuke are any between the ages of six and nine. You can decide if you'd rather imagine them older or younger.)

The alley seemed to shrink as the four-some of boys advanced. He prayed they'd just threaten him and walk away, just like they did last time he upset them. Their eyes glinted with laughter and excitement.

His back was pressed against the wall, blue eyes overflowing with fear. They moved closer, smirks growing on their faces as they took in his terror. His eyes darted around, looking for a way out.

"Aww, you scared Freak?" The leader sneered.

"L-leave me a-alone!" Naruto stuttered.

"Leave you alone? Why would we do that?" His grin grew as his friends laughed. He stepped closer raising his fists to teach the younger boy a lesson. Naruto brought his hands in front of his face and prepared for the worst. The other bullies went to surround them, laughing and jeering at the terrified blonde.

He wrenched his eyes shut as the first punches landed. His legs fell out from under him with the weight of the bully's cruel strikes. He whimpered and crouched low to the ground to protect himself as best he could. He knew from previous encounters to just wait it out, begging would just make it worse. The leader was the one who actually did the hitting, his friends just threw garbage and rocks at Naruto. He clenched his fists under himself, trying not to release the tears he could feel welling up, knowing it would just provoke his tormentors.

"Are you crying Freak?" The leader of the little gang jeered.

"Nah, he's more like a _Baby_." His friend laughed.

_Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, __**Baby!**_ The name echoed around his head, causing him to clench his fists and push up from the ground.

"I am _not_ a _baby_!" He shouted vehemently, taking a defensive stance. The bullies looked at him in surprise at the new determination that had entered his gaze. He stood there, waiting for them to advance. When they didn't move, he decided to make a break for it.

He tried to force his way between a pair of them, but they just laughed and grabbed his arms. As they held him back, the leader advanced, a look of rage on his face.

"No one gets out of a lesson when I'm the one teaching it." He growled, his face inches away from Naruto's. The younger boy just looked back at him, his determination unwavering.

The leader raised his fist, bringing it swiftly towards Naruto's face. The boy closed his eyes, waiting for the blow to come.

It never did.

"Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

He yelped in surprise when they suddenly dropped him unceremoniously to the ground. The crackling of flames caused his eyes to shoot open.

_What's going on?_ He wondered, staring at the giant fireball above him. Just as the fire began to recede, the voice that had shouted the jutsu spoke again.

"Well, well, well, picking on someone just because he's smaller than you? That's not a very good idea." Everyone turned to look at the boy standing at the end of that alley. His black hair was slightly askew and his hand was still in front of his mouth from controlling the flames.

"You expect us to be afraid of _you_? You're just a little kid, you're no older than this brat!" The leader scoffed with a kick to Naruto's side.

"I'll give you this one warning: Leave him alone and go on your way or you'll regret it." The boy said seriously. The leader looked at his friends and grinned.

"Look at this baka! Looks like he wants to learn a lesson too!" The bullies began advancing on him. The boy smirked and took a fighting stance.

Naruto stood, thoughts of helping running through his head. Even as his legs shook, he was determined not to stand down. He walked over to the black-haired boy and got ready to fight. His newfound hero just looked at him.

"What are you doing?" He asked dubiously.

"I'm helping you." Naruto said, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

"You're such a baka! I'm doing this so you can get away!"

"Well I'm not just going to abandon you to them!"

"I can handle myself, now run!"

"Okay c'mon!" Naruto grabbed his arm and pulled him as he started running. The boys heard the sounds of running feet behind them and sped up.

"This way!" The other boy turned a corner, allowing Naruto to catch a glimpse of red and white on the back of his shirt. He skirted after him but stopped short when he found himself in another dead-end alley. He looked around before turning to go back.

He gulped as he saw the group at the entrance.

_Great!_ He thought. _I'm trapped again! This can't be happening to me!_

"Give me your hand!" Naruto jumped and turned around. There he was, holding out a hand to pull him onto the roof he was perched on the edge of. "Take my hand already!" With that, he reached out and grabbed it. The dark-haired boy pulled him up before glancing down at their pursuers. They glared up at them.

"Okay you two, go around to the other side!" The leader ordered. That left just him and one other. Naruto turned to his new friend.

"We gonna fight it out or run?" The other boy looked around.

"I'd say fight but," he paused, "After seeing what they did to you, I'd rather run." He stated, eying the blonde's already forming bruises.

"Which way then?"

"Do they know where you live?"

"Yeah"

"Okay I know a place we can wait out for awhile."

"Wait _we_? As in you're willing to stay with me until I can go home?"

"Well I'm not going to abandon you yet, you might need my help again." Naruto looked at him, annoyed.

"So, where is this safe place?"

"Just follow me." He took off across the rooftops. Naruto stumbled once before following.

****

They had been running for nearly five minutes when the black-haired boy suddenly stopped. Naruto was hard-pressed to catch himself before he crashed.

"This is the place." He told Naruto, an amused look on his face.

"This?" He looked around the clearing. "Well at least they won't be expecting us to be here."

"That was the goal." The other boy smirked slightly. His smirk turned to a look of concern as Naruto grimaced in pain. "You okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." He rubbed at one of the sore spots on his shoulder.

"Are you sure? It looked like they beat you up pretty badly."

"I'm _fine_." Naruto looked at the boy thoroughly annoyed. "See?" He showed the boy one of the bruises, smirking slightly when he gasped.

"What the…" He didn't understand, he'd seen the bruises forming, they should have been pretty dark by now, but if anything, they were lighter than they had been. He was hard pressed to resist the urge to touch them.

"Hey are you okay?" Naruto was worried by the expression on the other boy's face.

"Hmm? Oh yes, yes I'm fine." He shook his head, attempting to clear it. "So what's your name?"

"Me? I'm Naruto, and you?"

"I'm Sasuke." The boys lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

Hours later, as the sun began to set, Sasuke stood up.

"They probably aren't looking for you anymore."

"Yeah, and…" Naruto paused uncertainly.

"What?"

"Thanks." Naruto grinned.

"For what? I'm pretty sure you could have gotten away on your own."

"Doubt it, they've done that to me before. If I couldn't get away before, what makes this time any different."

"They won't know if I'm coming to save you next time, so they probably won't be as ready to beat you up." He grinned at his new friend. "Well, see you around."

"Yeah, see ya." Naruto watched Sasuke take off into the trees.

****

"Hey Dobe, wake up!" Naruto groaned and just managed to dodge the kick aimed at his side.

"What do you want Sasuke? I was dreaming." Naruto opened his eyes and glared at his best friend, and rival.

"Do you think I care? Kakashi-sensei said to wake you up, now _get up_!" He kicked Naruto again, this time actually hitting him.

"Since when do you do what Kakashi-sensei says?" Naruto asked, moaning slightly as he sat up. Sasuke just walked away. Naruto grumbled to himself as he packed away his sleeping roll and pillow.

He looked up when he heard Sakura laugh. She was helping Kakashi dish out whatever they were having for breakfast. Naruto finished cleaning up and went over. Sakura handed him a bowl of some kind of porridge.

"Thanks Sakura-chan." He said, oddly quiet.

"Are you alright Naruto?" She asked him, concern evident in her voice. He looked up from his bowl to see the whole of Team 7 looking at him.

"Me? Yeah I'm fine! Believe it!"

"You look like you barely got any sleep at all." Kakashi pointed out.

"Huh?"

"Yeah you look exhausted, are you _sure_ you're okay?" Sakura teased.

"Yeah Sakura-chan, I'm fine!"

"So what was that dream of yours about? 'Cause from the look on your face it was a nightmare." Sasuke mentioned.

"No… It was a good dream." Naruto was instantly subdued. He looked down and continued eating.

_The Baka isn't ever _this_ quiet… I wonder why he's acting so weird._ Even Sasuke was worried.

****

As they raced through the trees, Naruto continued to think about the dream. The rest of the team watched with varying levels of concern as their usually boisterous teammate seemed to descend into depression.

_I wonder what's wrong with him._ Sakura wondered. _He was fine yesterday._

_What did the baka do now?_ Sasuke thought, growing bored with entire affair.

_Should I tell him? Or will he just make fun of me?_ Naruto considered, glancing at Sasuke. The questions continued whirling around his head, but he had an answer for none of them.

****

"Alright! Let's make camp for the night!" Suggested Kakashi, pulling out his ever-present orange book. The rest of the team grumbled at his unwillingness to help.

"I'll go get firewood." Sasuke quietly walked off before anyone could answer.

"I guess I'll go refill the water canisters." Naruto said, grabbing them and going in the same direction as Sasuke.

Naruto quickly found a stream. He spent a few moments in serenity to organize his thoughts.

"What are you doing?" Naruto jumped and pulled out a kunai before realizing that the voice was just Sasuke.

"Man Sasuke, you're so lucky I knew that was you! If I didn't, you woulda been dead by now!"

"Then how did I manage to sneak up on you?" Sasuke taunted, causing Naruto to look at him in annoyance.

"You didn't sneak up on me! I just wasn't expecting you to talk that's all!"

"You had no idea I was there and we both know it." Naruto just glared at him.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto turned his back huffily.

"So, what _were_ you doing?"

"Thinking."

"You have that ability?"

"_Ha, ha_ very funny Sasuke."

"What were you thinking about?"

"My dream from last night." Naruto looked up in shock as Sasuke sat down beside him. "What are you doing?!"

"Sakura and Kakashi are getting worried about you, so I decided to get you to stop thinking about it. Your behavior is getting really annoying. But that's not the point. The point _is_ what was your dream about?"

"It was about when I was a little kid."

"Oh?"

"Yeah it was kind of weird."

"How so?"

"Well I was getting attacked by these jerks and couldn't get away."

"And?" Naruto looked down at the stream.

"And someone saved me from them." Sasuke just raised an eyebrow. Naruto laughed nervously and looked up at his friend. "The funny thing is, it was _you_."

"Huh, so _I_ saved _you_? Well at least your dreams stay consistent with real life. Now hurry up with that, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei are going to be worried." He lightly punched Naruto on his orange jumpsuit covered shoulder and started back for camp, a bundle of sticks and small logs in his arms. Naruto watched him go for a few minutes before a huge grin spread across his face. In his delight, he failed to notice the orange water canister floating farther and farther downstream.

"CRAP!"

Sasuke smiled to himself as he heard his teammate's indignant roar. _It's good to have him back._

Thank-you for reading! If you think you are unable to live without a second chapter, please let me know! Reviews earn you a Thank-You card from Team 7!


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